How is it suddenly almost New Year's Eve? One second it was Halloween...the next, Christmas...and now, chubby little baby New Year is sneaking up on me in a most depressing manner.

I had meant to write...when the festive celebrations seemed to loll around on the distant horizon...about this elegant little linen and tulle skirt. Thanks to my tardiness, it's too late for a 2010 party purchase...but something as timeless would surely be a perfect layaway piece for future holidays that creep up on one...unawares...

It's the kind of thing that makes me wish that I wasn't kicked out of the girl guides...for conduct unbecoming a wearer of the brown dress (am I the only one who thinks of P.G. Wodehouse's "black shorts" when I read that sentence?)...my crime...objecting (rather vocally, I'll admit) to being forced to practice Scottish sword dancing whilst wearing a pair of ballet slippers. One slip...and it's the worst papercut of your life...

However staying with the guides would, presumably, have given me the skills to tie a decent knot...preferably in leather...and affix it to a little brass and rose gold...

The blurb read "Begin wedded bliss in style with Lanvin's white glazed canvas suitcase with silver-tone hardware and printed honeymoon accessories"...to my double-entendre-sodden-Brit-mind the term "honeymoon accessories" conjures up something...entertaining...not a tote bag, pareo, and pompom-embellished raffia flip flops.

As we're still officially in "snacking season"...which will be followed quickly by "the season of regrets"...and "the period of gym attendance thanks to excessive guilt"...I thought I'd sing the praises of a snack food that is (gasp) relatively healthy AND tastily addictive.

The snack in question is...(drum roll, please)...Trader Joe's Organic Popcorn with Olive Oil. Boasting...according to the packaging...nothing more than organic popcorn, olive oil, and sea salt...it is snack crack (and this from a woman, who, in the regular run of things prefers her corn as nature intended...on the cob).

The Christmas story continues...otherwise known as "what was in that rather snazzily wrapped package you mentioned yesterday?"... If you're anything like me you hesitate when buying something several seasons old...not, I hasten to add, because the item in question is no longer "in"...but because there's the fear that said item has been bought and returned a good many times by this point and is looking a little the worse for wear. The concern is doubled when you haven't shopped from a particular store before...and (in this version of fashion math) you add an extra ten points if the item you're contemplating buying is light in color, and therefore liable to show the dirt.

Which is why, I suppose, I hemmed and hawed so much over the striped scarf. Even though I'm a fan of French label, Heimstone, the scarf...at full price...was too expensive. First reductions took place...and still I hesitated. By the time a second round of reductions came by I was concerned that it would be looking a little ratty.

Reckless abandon...and a cocktail whilst browsing online...caused me to hit the buy button. To...after the delay of said package winging its way across the Atlantic...enthuse over Amélie Boutique's packaging...and...to be amazed by the pristine condition of "the scarf". Perhaps no one else wanted it, but my fear of "dinginess thanks to a series of folks returning it" has not come true...

I'm not even going to discuss what was in it...I'll leave that for another day...instead I'll focus on the packaging (which must have gladdened my mailman's heart as much as it did mine). Turquoise bubble envelope...sealed with a rather snazzy black and white polka dot tape. As this was my first purchase from Amélie Boutique I don't know if this is their regular packaging...or a "let's make things extra nice for Christmas" wrap...either way, it was special enough to be placed under the tree in the envelope it crossed the Atlantic in...a refreshing change in a world of brown cardboard boxes and bland anonymity...

If you've been reading this blog for a while now you'll know that Christmas, to me, means an excess of good food and drink...a selection of "vintage" British Christmas specials thrown into the DVD player...and games. Also, let's be honest, it usually includes a few tons of tinsel and glitter. Which is why, this year, I'm going against the grain with a positively restrained version of tiddlywinks...let's call them Philo-winks...with Phoebe as the "squidger"...and colors from Céline's collection for next spring as the "winks".

Full rules can be found here...along with what it means to shoot a boondock, scrunge, or gromp. Just print out...stick onto cardboard...cut out...start playing...and discover that it's just about time to gather round the festive chicken/pork loin/roast beef.

Merry Christmas! Wishing you, and yours, a happy...healthy...and prosperous 2011.

The following hit my mailbox earlier today...

The (decidedly unsubtle) inference being..."you'd better spend your Christmas day shopping online if you want to snag those bargains". Shopping on baby J's birthday...is nothing sacred?

Answers on a candy cane shaped postcard, please.

Snow falling...the night (alright, day) before Christmas...the bare minimum of food rattling around the fridge...and very little thought given to the question of what to eat over the Christmas/Boxing day festivities. Or does the idea of vacuously staring at the aisles in the supermarket, waiting for inspiration to hit, count as "preparation"?

Just about the time I should be hunkering down by the Christmas tree with a copy of The I Hate to Cook Book (50th Anniversary Edition) and a selection of take-out menus...

You realize that you may, just potentially, have signed up for one too many store's email list when...a couple of days before Christmas...your mailbox is deluged with "hey you lazy bum, this is your last chance to buy something and have it actually arrive in time for Christmas" emails. Or maybe I find it irritating because, this year, my Christmas shopping is actually done...

Of course, even more galling...if you handed over the necessary spondooliks for a "must have" aviator jacket a mere couple of months ago...is The Telegraph's "Christmas sale guide: what to avoid". For aviator's will be...per The T...the "ultimate no-no" come next Spring/Summer. Of course, whether that is due to the whims and caprices of Fashion (capital F)...or the difficulty of maneuvering through the summer streets swaddled in the better part of a herd of sheep...is up for debate...

During my teens the following...and the lure of becoming a "Joseph girl"...would have caused shrieks of excitement...a lot of "oh my God"-ing...and an (almost certainly cringe-worthingly embarrassing) phone call. Who am I kidding...my inner voice let out a little "eek!" of excitement as I read it just now...just as well that I am no longer UK-based...and can therefore save myself from a current bout of embarrassing phone-call-itis.

While it's undeniable that, unless you've invested in a crystal ball, your vision of the future is sketchy at best...a girl can dream. Specifically, of rabbit fur...luxurious "sweatshirts"...and all the bits and bobs that make Philip Lim's 2011 pre-Fall collection the stuff that next year's dreams are made of...

Given that you need to register to view its price...and it's being sold by a gallery in a rather swank area of London...this Louis Vuitton snow globe couldn't conceivably be deemed a "stocking stuffer"...but it is a rather festive little blighter, isn't it?

If, like me, you're getting a tad sick of holly...mistletoe...and other associated festive flora...may I say a good word for miniature calla lilies? Colorful...yet soothingly muted...almost architectural in form...and demanding absolutely nothing in the way of TLC (a must for someone, like me, who can assassinate a cactus). A perfect blend of equal parts...tranquility and indestructibility...with nary a "Ho, Ho, Ho" in sight.

I imagine Racquel Welch's character in One Million Years B.C. wearing this coat...right about the time she gave up fighting dinosaurs and indulging in a little creative cave painting to get a real job. She didn't want to give up the whole "dead animals strapped around torso" look...yet wanted something a little more professional and ladylike. Yep, that's what I imagine...clearly I need to get out more...

You often hear about natural resources being squandered...oil...coal...the rain forests...but there's one n.r. that is rarely mentioned...grannies. Or, to be specific, grannies who knit...and who, having clothed all their various relatives in copious quantities of woolen goods, are now at somewhat of a loose end.

Enter Grannies, Inc...a British company that has gathered together a crack team of grannies...who wait, poised with needle and wool, to hand knit you the snood (scarf, beanie, etc) of your dreams...or, if not your dreams, your specifications vis-a-vis color and stitch.

It's a shame that this video looks like Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love girls are relaxing after a hard day playing air guitar...because it makes it difficult to fully appreciate Malcolm McClaren's take on Puccini's Madame Butterfly...

None of which...as is my rambling way...really has anything to do with the delightful simplicity of James Perse's framed bolero (apart from it's vaguely Lepidoptera-ish back view)...except that I find them both charming, in their own way...

Four little words...they could be "I love you...deeply" and, in a way, they are...for that was what I felt when I read the description of Sofia Coppola's outfit in an article in the January issue of UK Vogue...but, moreover, those four little words were a summation of my ultimate wardrobe. Casual...witty...chic...expensive(?). Alright, I disagree with the 4th word being an absolute necessity but, as they say, "three out of four ain't bad".